M A I N   N E W S

Antony to be Kerala CM

Thiruvananthapuram, May 15
CWC member A.K. Antony was today unanimously elected the Congress Legislature Party leader in Kerala catapulting him as the state’s new Chief Minister.

Antony’s name was proposed by a Karunakaran loyalist Kadavur Sivadasan and seconded by Vakkom Purushothaman, Aryadan Mohammed and G.Karthikeyan at a meeting of the newly elected Congress MLAs chaired by KPCC President Thennala Balakrishna Pillai.

The election of Antony came soon after Congress President Sonia Gandhi endorsed his name when AICC observers Ghulam Nabi Azad and Motilal Vora contacted her this evening.

Earlier, the CLP had unanimously adopted a resolution entrusting Sonia Gandhi with the task of selecting the party’s leader and thereby the Chief Minister of Kerala.

The election of Antony was smooth as party veteran K. Karunakaran, who rebelled during the seat sharing exercise and quit from the CWC, had already stated that he was not in the race for Chief Ministership.

Earlier the outgoing E.K. Nayanar government recommended dissolution of the 10th Kerala Assembly.

The state Cabinet, in its last meeting today, took a decision to this effect, Chief Minister E.K. Nayanar said here.

The recommendation was made as per the direction of the state Governor in the wake of the LDF’s defeat in the just-concluded Assembly elections.

The Governor had accepted Mr Nayanar’s resignation on Sunday but asked him to continue till an alternative arrangement was made.

Referring to the election results, Mr Nayanar said it was “only a technical defeat and not a political one” for the CPM-led Left Democratic Front.

“All communal and caste organisations in the state allied with the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF). The verdict was not a referendum on the performance of the five-year LDF Government,” he said.

The LDF also failed to successfully project before the electorate the various welfare and development activities initiated by his government, Mr Nayanar said.

The front would hold self-introspection on various aspects that led to its defeat, he added. PTI